The UK’s war on anonymity has come to America

英国针对匿名性的战争已蔓延至美国

An Effort investigation has identified a coordinated operation to influence American lawmakers by five foreign non-government organizations and their US affiliates. These NGOs have converged upon a unified strategy: use the rhetoric of ‘child safety’ to advocate for digital ID laws that would prevent adults from using the internet anonymously. 一项“Effort”调查发现，五个外国非政府组织（NGO）及其美国分支机构正在开展一项协调行动，旨在影响美国立法者。这些非政府组织采取了统一的策略：利用“儿童安全”的修辞，倡导实施数字身份法，从而阻止成年人匿名使用互联网。

In Britain, they succeeded in passing those laws. They now form part of a system which surveils, arrests, and jails political dissidents. Digital ID laws are a key component used to strip Brits of internet anonymity, an otherwise effective technological countermeasure against authoritarianism. 在英国，他们成功通过了这些法律。这些法律现已成为监视、逮捕和监禁政治异见人士体系的一部分。数字身份法是剥夺英国人互联网匿名权的关键手段，而匿名权本是抵御威权主义的一种有效的技术性反制措施。

British NGOs are now replicating their playbook in the United States of America, attempting to pass a patchwork of digital ID laws in 21 states and the US Congress. One British NGO, 5Rights, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but has failed to file critical information related to its foreign leadership. 英国的非政府组织目前正在美国复制这一套剧本，试图在21个州和美国国会通过一系列零散的数字身份法。其中一家英国非政府组织“5Rights”虽然根据《外国代理人登记法》进行了注册，但未能提交有关其外国领导层的关键信息。

All five foreign NGOs have influenced American policy, either directly or using American proxies with significant foreign management. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was founded by British Labour consultants Imran Ahmed and Morgan McSweeney. CCDH has already been involved in censorship scandals in the US and UK. They led a boycott campaign against X immediately after Elon Musk’s acquisition, sponsored major censorship legislation in the UK, and frequently hosted events in which US and UK government officials advocated for censorship. 所有这五家外国非政府组织都通过直接方式，或利用由外国高管深度参与的美国代理机构，对美国政策施加了影响。“反数字仇恨中心”（CCDH）由英国工党顾问伊姆兰·艾哈迈德（Imran Ahmed）和摩根·麦克斯威尼（Morgan McSweeney）创立。CCDH此前已卷入美英两国的审查丑闻。在埃隆·马斯克收购X平台后，他们立即领导了针对该平台的抵制运动，在英国资助了重大的审查立法，并频繁举办活动，邀请美英政府官员为审查制度背书。

America First Legal, a law firm connected with the Trump administration, accused CCDH of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in 2024. The US Department of Justice has not publicly announced any investigation into CCDH, and did not respond to our request for comment. Effort independently corroborated the core claims made in this letter about the nationalities and residences of CCDH leadership — that Imran Ahmed is CEO of both organizations and is a British national, that Clark and Brookes are shared directors of both US and UK entities, and that McNeill was a board member until July 11, 2024. 与特朗普政府有关联的律师事务所“美国优先法律”（America First Legal）在2024年指控CCDH违反了《外国代理人登记法》（FARA）。美国司法部尚未公开宣布对CCDH进行任何调查，也未回应我们的置评请求。Effort独立证实了这封信中关于CCDH领导层国籍和居住地的核心主张——即伊姆兰·艾哈迈德同时担任两个组织的首席执行官且为英国公民，克拉克（Clark）和布鲁克斯（Brookes）是美英两个实体的共同董事，以及麦克尼尔（McNeill）在2024年7月11日之前一直是董事会成员。

CCDH supported bills with the explicit intent of importing British laws. A joint statement by Buffy Wicks, the lead author of AB 2273, Jordan Cunningham, another AB 2273 author, and 5Rights Foundation states, “The Bill is practicable and realistic, drawing as it does on the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC).” AB 2273 was co-designed by 5Rights Foundation, a foreign principal that paid to lobby for AB 2273, according to their own Foreign Agents Registration Act filing. CCDH支持那些明确旨在引入英国法律的法案。AB 2273法案的主要起草人巴菲·威克斯（Buffy Wicks）、另一位起草人乔丹·坎宁安（Jordan Cunningham）以及5Rights基金会发表联合声明称：“该法案借鉴了英国的《适龄设计规范》（AADC），是切实可行的。”根据5Rights基金会自己的《外国代理人登记法》备案文件，该基金会作为外国委托人，曾出资游说通过AB 2273法案，并参与了该法案的共同设计。

5Rights is the leading NGO promoting the British Age Appropriate Design Code / AB 2273 model across American states. 5Rights engaged on 42 bills across 18 states, 11 of which have become law. 5Rights paid Capitol Connection $50,000 to lobby in the California Legislature from May to September 2022. They did not disclose this lobbying on behalf of a foreign agent until 2024, over a year after the bill they lobbied for passed. 5Rights是推动英国《适龄设计规范》/AB 2273模式在美国各州落地的主要非政府组织。5Rights参与了18个州的42项法案，其中11项已成为法律。2022年5月至9月，5Rights支付了5万美元给Capitol Connection公司，用于在加州立法机构进行游说。直到2024年，即他们游说的法案通过一年多后，他们才披露了这次代表外国代理人的游说活动。

In their disclosure, Capitol Connection denied that 5Rights was supervised, owned, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized by a foreign government, foreign political party, or other foreign principal. They did not submit any information for question 12, which could have clarified what level of control Kidron, their founder and then-director, had over 5Rights. 5Rights is a British nonprofit founded by Baroness Beeban Tania Kidron, who sits in the British House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament. 在披露文件中，Capitol Connection否认5Rights受到外国政府、外国政党或其他外国委托人的监督、拥有、指导、控制、资助或补贴。他们没有提交关于第12个问题的任何信息，而该问题本可以澄清其创始人兼时任董事基德隆（Kidron）对5Rights拥有何种程度的控制权。5Rights是一家由比班·塔尼亚·基德隆女男爵（Baroness Beeban Tania Kidron）创立的英国非营利组织，她目前是英国议会上议院的议员。

Despite the British government using these laws to target political dissidents, Baroness Kidron and 5Rights now advocate for VPN bans, a change that would add the UK to a small number of authoritarian regimes — Russia, China, and North Korea — that ban VPNs. 尽管英国政府利用这些法律来针对政治异见人士，但基德隆女男爵和5Rights现在却主张禁止VPN。这一举措将使英国加入俄罗斯、中国和朝鲜等少数禁止VPN的威权政权行列。

A central node in that British censorship ecosystem is the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. They have contracted with the US State Department, European Union, and several UK ministries for a total of over $17M US dollars. 英国审查生态系统中的一个核心节点是“战略对话研究所”（Institute for Strategic Dialogue，简称ISD）。他们已与美国国务院、欧盟以及英国多个政府部门签订了总额超过1700万美元的合同。

ISD’s contracts explicitly describe a mission to control internet speech. In the reports and policy recommendations produced for these contracts, ISD conflates political dissent with “misinformation”, “extremism”, “hate speech”, or even “violent extremism”, both justifying and enabling censorship by governments foreign and domestic. ISD的合同明确描述了其控制互联网言论的使命。在为这些合同撰写的报告和政策建议中，ISD将政治异见与“虚假信息”、“极端主义”、“仇恨言论”甚至“暴力极端主义”混为一谈，从而为外国和本国政府的审查行为提供正当性并予以推动。